Jon Siegel / ジョン 米岡

Year 2000, year of the goatee and earring

I haven’t had time to write lately, to say this has been a busy month would be a big understatement. Much has happened and is happening with my work situation, but I don’t feel it’s time to write about it as it is still unfolding. What is happening is not necessarily a bad thing, I consider it simply a change of pace and a redirection. In spite of the many options presented to me, I’ve spent more time reflecting on my past experiences hoping it will help me make the right decisions when it’s the right time. Contrary to speculation, I am in no ounce of trouble, rather I am in the middle of a complex puzzle which I must solve in a very short period of time.

Of those memorable work-related experiences, I can easily recall a few of the more embarrassing ones I experienced in college. Particularly my second year when I got it in my head that my lousy animation skills with Macromedia Director software would actually get me through the doors of some of the worlds top advertising agencies. Without even calling ahead, I gathered my portfolio, disc in hand filled with animated shapes and text bearing no conceptual significance, and made my way to Boston’s Prudential Building. I managed my way through the doors of “agency a”(I’m happy to share my embarrassing experiences, but not dig my grave with ill chosen references), walked up to the secretary and politely requested the audience of their head art director. I must have been about 18 or 19 years old at the time. giant sideburns, goatee, and second-hand navy blue overcoat. To my surprise the art director actually walked out and granted me a brief interview. She sat me down and looked at my work, gave me some thoughtful compliments and then led me through their art department. At the time I assumed this was the way things worked, foolishly knocking on doors and then expecting an open invitation being the way to a decent design job. Obviously I never got any full time design job(or freelance for that matter), but I did receive a lot of friendly guidance and support that really started me down the road to my current concept of the field.

About a year or two later, after a fair amount of tempering from my college, I made another attempt at finding professional work(although passively, not aggressively). I’ve only shared the story with a few friends, and it’s been so long that I may not be reciting it as acurately as I would like. My best friend John and I were walking through Central Square in Cambridge one summer afternoon, on our way to a sort of entrepreneurs barbeque with a sort of ambiguous invitation. I’m not even sure exactly how we got the invitation, it may have been intended for John’s mother who runs two B&Bs in the Harvard area. Either way, the two of us were hungry and were attending primarily for the free food. We queued for the barbeque and only about 3 minutes later were we stopped by someone who politely asked us to get our nametags before taking any food. We nervously lined up and saw the staff checking off names. When it was time for me to tell the staff my name, I asked if anything could be written on the nametag and the staff member said of course. John and I walked back over to the barbeque line which had shrunk in anticipation of a speech which was about to begin. We got our meal and sat down with some other people we assumed were entrepreneurs.

When the speech was over, we stood up to make for some more food when suddenly someone patted me on the back and said, “I like your nametag.” Apparently someone finally noticed “Hire Me” scrawled across my nametag. Another man strolled over and shook my hand, complimented my odd nametag and asked me what I do. I explained myself and talked about what I study and what I do. I earned myself two proper interviews after that day. One of them turned into a fulltime job which became the highlight of my resume for the following years to come.

Many of the choices I’ve made since graduating college and finally making my way to Tokyo were influenced by those experiences and many, many more since then. To give you a hint of what type of challenge I face this time, my company’s parent company has been sold to new owners, yet many ask, what will become of my little gang of misfits? Thus, here I am, what to do, what to do…

Me, moustache and goatee painted on, year 2003